Armed robberies and burglaries become daily events in Greece

Hardly a day goes by without reports of armed robberies and violent burglaries in Greece, a phenomenon almost unheard of a decade ago.

Armed robbers targeted a restaurant in the seaside village of Eleftheres, near Kavala, on Sunday, according to Ekathimerini. One robber fired his gun at least four times before lobbing a hand grenade at the restaurant owner. The robbers fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash. In Thessaloniki a man who worked for the Hellenic Railway Organisation was robbed of €105,000 he was carrying to deposit in the bank. A woman petrol-station owner was robbed of almost €70,000 when robbers cut her up on the highway, broke her car window and attacked her with pepper spray, Athens News reported. Police arrested the two men who murdered a security guard who was on patrol at his place of employment in Piraeus at the weekend. Robbers invaded homes in the Attica area in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Ta Nea reported one burglar fell off the second floor balcony of an apartment where he and an accomplice were attempting to remove a safe. Police apprehended both of the foreign burglars. Meanwhile four other robbers were on a house breaking spree, threatening home owners with weapons as they stole jewelery and money. These daily incidents are fuelling support for Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) as people feel increasingly vulnerable to attack and deplore the lack of available police to deal with the crime wave.